Coach Charged With Failing to Report Scandal

Capping an investigation that has rocked Burbank schools, the football coach who originally disclosed the Salle Dumm sex scandal was charged Thursday with failing to report the middle-aged fund-raiser’s alleged seduction of a 17-year-old football player to proper authorities.

John Hazelton, former Burbank High School varsity head coach, became the third person charged with a crime in the scandal.

Hazelton testified under oath that then-school board president Joe Hooven covered up allegations about the seduction of a varsity football player, charges that led to Hooven’s resignation earlier this month.

Police said no charges will be filed against either Hooven or Maureen Burke, a former school tutor who was with the 17-year-old the night he was allegedly seduced by the 51-year-old Salle Dumm, president of the Burbank Education Foundation.

At Dumm’s preliminary hearing last week, the football player testified that she plied him with three or four drinks and lured him into her bedroom, where she was waiting naked. She then allegedly grabbed him, saying: “Do this for your team.”

Hazelton was the last key player in the scandal.

“There are a couple of aspects of the investigation that are still ongoing, but as for these individuals, who were the principal players in this case, this concludes the charges that we were looking into,” Burbank Police Lt. Larry Koch said.

Koch said Hazelton was not arrested but was notified of the charges Wednesday. Koch said Hazelton had cooperated with the police investigation and poses no threat to others.

Hazelton’s arraignment on the misdemeanor charge, which carries a maximum sentence of one year in County Jail, was set for March 27 in Burbank Municipal Court.

“I did what I thought was the right thing and the most important thing to do on behalf of the child,” Hazelton said Wednesday, but declined further comment.

Under state law, Hazelton, as a school district employee, was required to report any incident of child abuse to his immediate supervisor, the school principal, Koch said.

Hazelton testified before a Burbank school board committee last month that he reported the alleged affair between Dumm and the student to Hooven--a claim Hooven confirmed--but prosecutors “felt that did not fulfill his obligation under the law,” Koch said.

Hazelton has figured prominently in the scandal ever since Dumm was arrested Nov. 18.

In January, he testified under oath that he learned of a sexual incident between Dumm and one of his players a few days after it allegedly took place last July, and immediately called Hooven. He testified that Hooven urged him to keep the information “under wraps,” and that he did so until November.

Dumm, a prominent fund-raiser and schools booster, faces trial on one felony charge of having sex with a minor and one misdemeanor charge.

Hooven resigned from the school board Feb. 13, shortly after the district released transcripts of Hazelton’s testimony. Hooven, who refused to testify under oath before the panel, said that although Hazelton told him of the alleged seduction, he did not report it to police or the district superintendent because he considered it to be hearsay.

The charge against Hazelton followed Monday’s arrest of John Greaves, an assistant coach who worked under Hazelton. Greaves has been charged with threatening Hazelton in an effort to ensure that the Dumm allegations would not be brought out and with failing to report child abuse. He is free on bail and due to return to court next month.

The city attorney’s office declined to file misdemeanor charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor against Burke, a former tutor who testified at Dumm’s preliminary hearing last week that she drove the youth to Dumm’s house on the evening of July 14, and that he drank alcohol with the two women.

Police asked the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office to determine whether Hooven was vulnerable to criminal charges for failing to report the alleged sexual incident, but prosecutors declined to file any charges, Koch said.

As an elected official, Hooven is not required by law to report incidents of child abuse to the school district or to public authorities, as are teachers and other employees of the district. In an interview, Hooven acknowledged that “ethically and morally, I should have reported” the incident.

Dumm attempted unsuccessfully to block public and media access to court hearings on the charges against her.

Both Hazelton and Hooven were implicated last fall in an investigation into improper recruitment of high school football players. At the time, a spokesman for the California Interscholastic Federation, which polices high school football, said it was the first case in memory in which an elected school board official had been cited for improper conduct.

Based on disclosures to date, Hazelton was the first Burbank school employee to learn of the alleged incident.